Archive for the ‘Agricultire’

The percentage of high-tech exports (as a share of manufactured exports) from Kazakhstan have grown from just 4.46% in 1995 to 37.17% in 2014.

Over the past two decades, high-tech exports from Kazakhstan have been increasing steadily. The World Bank Group has been working since 2008 with the Kazakh Government and scientist groups to further expand the country’s high-tech exports in a number of sectors. Through the Technology Commercialization Project, 65 new startups received grant funding and business training to get their innovations out of the lab and into markets. The startups operate in a wide variety of industries including agriculture, health, medicine, gas, oil and robotics. Already 40 of these businesses have reached first sales.

Kazakhstan’s Holding Group Almex and the Netherlands’ Staay Food Group have signed a memorandum on developing projects in the agricultural and food industries and the joint venture Astana Fresh.

In the first phase, the parties will establish cooperation with local farmers by creating a distribution system of fresh fruit and vegetable products in Kazakhstan and neighbouring countries. This initiative will give further momentum to the existing support provided to local agricultural producers engaged in growing fruit and vegetables in greenhouses and on open ground. The parties hope that their joint company Astana Fresh will bridge the gap between farmers and the consumers of agricultural products.

A second meeting of the special Land Reform Commission took place in Astana on May 21 in a continued effort to calm public sentiment over recent land code changes that have sparked sporadic rallies.

The changes, which involve agricultural lands, were put on hold by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on May 5 until next year and until they can be better explained to the public or until further amendments can be introduced better satisfying the national interests. However, some citizens concerned about the changes and apparently unaware of the ongoing work of a representative commission sought to organize rallies around the country on May 21. Those rallies involved the detentions of some citizens and journalists.

While more than 70 commission members from business, NGOs, academia, media, government and parliament were debating the land issue and building a national consensus on it, some planned rallies in different regions of the country.

The second meeting of the commission, set up earlier in May, focused on the whole range of issues related to the sale and lease of land. The commission plans to have several meetings in Astana, held every Saturday. Commission members are then to discuss the changes with public councils and public organizations around the country before a final decision will be submitted for the consideration of the Kazakh Parliament.

The government says the controversial land code changes were not intended to allow foreign ownership of the Kazakh land, but only to extend the current limit of renting agricultural land from 10 years to 25 years to help encourage investment and innovation.

Chinese companies are in talks to invest $1.9 billion in upgrading the Kazakh food processing industry.

Kazakhstan’s deputy agriculture minister, Gulmira Isayeva, told the Financial Times in an interview, “We have great interest from Chinese companies to invest in our Kazakh agricultural production system… We can export to China all products which we can grow in Kazakhstan.”

The projects are part of China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” launched in 2013 to promote trade with central and southern Asian countries.

Chinese companies have agreed to invest $1.74 billion in Kazakhstan’s organic foods industry for products earmarked for export to China, according to the Kazakh Deputy Agriculture Minister Gulmira Isayeva.

“Today we start 19 agricultural projects with a total investment of $1.74 billion. Most of the projects are located in eastern Kazakhstan and the Almaty region,” said Isayeva after the signing of the so-called “Cooperation Plan” between Kazakh and Chinese companies.

Following the signing ceremony in Astana, the Kazakh Agriculture Minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov said that COFCO plans to build three plants for the processing of tomatoes and tomato paste, the Rifa Holding Group plans to build a meat processing plant with an annual capacity of 17 thousand tonnes of lamb and beef in the East Kazakhstan region, as well as to export meat to China and the Arab countries.

“We have a large and growing demand for organic agricultural products. Kazakhstan and China have a strong strategic partnership in this regard,” said China’s ambassador to Kazakhstan, Zhang Hanhuey.

The government of Kazakhstan has approved a list of state companies to be offered for privatisation as part of its long-term privatisation plan for 2016-2020.

The plan approves a list of large state-owned companies and organisations that will be privatised, and includes the pharmaceutical company SK-Pharmacy, national space company Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary, state road enterprise Kazakhavtodor, Khorgos international centre of cross-border cooperation, the airport of Astana, the Almaty sanatorium, the Kazakh national film studio, the airports of Kostanai and Petropavlovsk, the Korkyt Ata airport in Kyzylorda, and the Duman entertainment centre in Astana.

The list for priority privatisation also includes the national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (through IPO), national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (IPO), national atomic company Kazatomprom (IPO), national post service Kazpost (IPO), airlines Air Astana (IPO) and Qazaq Air, national telecommunications operator Kazakhtelecom, the airports of Aktobe, Atyrau and Pavlodar, the Aktau international seaport, and the national agricultural holding KazAgro.

The Kazakh National Holding KazAgro plans to attract $2 billion in funds from the World Bank for 35 years for lending to the agro-industrial complex, according to the Chairman of the National Holding Nurlybek Malelov.

According to the chairman, the loan will provide a twofold increase in lending to the agricultural sector, without attracting funds from the budget.

The Samruk Kazyna, Baiterek and KazAgro national holdings will be featured in the new privatisation programme, after which they will either be transformed into lean organisations or liquidated, according to the Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The assets of the Samruk-Kazyna national welfare fund include: the KazMunaiGas national oil and gas company, the Kazakhstan Temir Zholy railway operator, Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company (KEGOC), Kazakhtelecom telecommunications operator, and the Kazatomprom national nuclear company.

The Kazakh Fund for Financial Support of Agriculture (FFSA) started recently implementing a drop irrigation program under the Agrobusiness-2020 state branch program. Equipment for 40 projects in a territory of 440 hectares will be installed this year.

“Kazakhstan has a large area which is suitable for farming and drop irrigation technology can help increase the volume of agricultural production several times. The drop irrigation technology solves the main problem of farming in the state – arid climate,” said head of the FFSA press service Aliya Ensebayeva in a July 21interview.

As of July 16, the fund has already financed 24 projects inthe amount of 135.8 million tenge (US$726,200), which enables the installation of drop irrigation equipment on 300 hectares. Thirteen requests for installation of drop irrigation equipment on 100 hectares are also currently being considered and three contracts for installation of the equipment on the remaining 40 hectares will be registered soon.

“In 2015,the fund plans to spend 675 million tenge ($US3.6 million). The program operates in all regions of Kazakhstan and all farmers who want to use drop irrigation can approach the offices of the fund, which are situated in every region of the state,” said Ensebayeva.

The issue of water and the difficulty and expense of acquiring it was reviewed by Kenzhetai farm head Gulnara Saramsakova. The farm raises vegetables and the need to pump water from a river using three or four engines which consume a lot of fuel is a costly proposition.

“We haven’t used drop irrigation technology yet, but I am sure that this technology will help us. The equipment is very expensive and I thought for a long time before I made the decision to install it. I visited other farms which use the technology. I spoke to farmers and experts, saw the results of their work and I made the corresponding conclusion for myself,” she said in a July 20 interview.

Saramsakova considers this technology to beperfect for Kazakh farmers, because the crop is several times higher and water consumption is several times lower.Kazakh banks don’t give such loans, because they don’t accept farms as pledged assets, butthe fund does. As a result, farmers have the opportunity to get a loan.

Saramsakova is one of the fund’s first loan debtors under the drop irrigation program.

“Drop irrigation enables us to provide water directly to a plant’s roots constantly using special tubes with microscopic holes. Such plants get water only to the necessary place drop by drop. As a result,the soil around the roots isn’t too wet and isn’t too dry. It has air access. All the above-mentioned factors create optimum conditions for the life activity of plants and saves water,” she said.

The equipment is being installed in Shariptogai village in the Kokpekty district, East Kazakhstan region. The farm has all the necessary equipment and tools, a heat-insulated warehouse and refrigerationsystem for long-term crop storage.

Saramsakova plans to create five new work places at her farm and is sure implementingthe new technology will make her life easier and her business more profitable. She has a very ambitious development plan.

ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN — The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General José Graziano da Silva and Kazakhstan’s Minister of Agriculture Assylzhan Mamytbekov on May 23 signed an agreement establishing an FAO Partnership and Liaison Office in the country.

FAO’s new partnership with Kazakhstan will facilitate international cooperation efforts, bringing FAO and the government together to support of national development goals and priorities as well as assist other countries in the region.

The new office will promote cooperation with donors and financial institutions, scientific circles, multilateral agencies and other key partners, particularly with the Islamic Organization for Food Security being established in Kazakhstan under the aegis of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

In his address at the signing ceremony, Graziano da Silva highlighted that the establishment of a Partnership and Liaison Office in Kazakhstan will strengthen FAO’s partnership with Kazakhstan and open up new opportunities for cooperation in pursuit of common goals.

Graziano da Silva met the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, during the VIII Astana Economic Forum. Nazarbayev underscored the importance of addressing food insecurity, being among the three global challenges. Graziano da Silva congratulated the president for achieving the first three Millennium Development Goals and praised Kazakhstan for maintaining since 1990 the total number and proportion of undernourished people at under 5% of the population.

During the mission to Astana, Graziano da Silva visited Astana’s Agrarian and Technological University and gave a lecture on global food security challenges. He encouraged students to help contribute to the fight against hunger through agricultural research and development.

The director-general was awarded with the academic rank of honorable professor.

FAO has been working in Kazakhstan since 1997, focusing on sustainable natural resource management, food safety and organic food production, animal health and livestock production.

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Kazakhstan Chamber of Commerce in USA is located in New York. KazCham is an independent chamber associated with state agencies and businesses in Kazakhstan with the aim to provide members with current information on the political and investment climate, assist them in establishing government and business contacts, conduct searches of buyers and partners, organize forums and seminars, PR campaigns. Contact us at info@kazcham.com or follow on twitter.com @kazcham.